When it was announced that Smyth was returning from the Los Angeles Kings to the Edmonton Oilers that was the only way to write it.

Despite the belief that, however, you had to believe it was going to be a story which in the end had to end badly.

Edmonton was excited and enthused to have to old warrior back to complete his career here but with the punishment Smyth had received in his career, spitting out his “Chicklets” and coming back from “surgery” in the hall behind the bench during playoff games, what were the chances of there being a happy ending?

There were few more delightful, delectable, delicious hockey stories you could invent than Smytty asking the Los Angeles Kings to trade him to Edmonton.